By Sujit Bhar
In India, politicians of all hues are experts at delaying, obfuscating and even derailing critical investigative and judicial procedures. A month has passed since “Abhaya”, the hapless postgraduate trainee lady doctor, was brutally raped and murdered inside a government hospital—RG Kar Medical College and Hospital—in Kolkata, and even as the city and all of West Bengal has risen up in anger and protest, investigations seem to be getting nowhere.
As of September 9 (exactly a month after the tragic death), as the Supreme Court sat again to hear deliberations on the case that it took upon itself suo motu, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earned another week to submit another (fresh) status report, the junior doctors were ordered to join work by 5pm the day after or the state government was free to take disciplinary action against them, and the CBI appealed to the Court to send the medical report to AIIMS in Delhi for further investigation.
The Court order on junior doctors’cease work was probably prompted by the state government’s counsel Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal claiming that it was the ceasework that had resulted in 23 deaths in Kolkata hospitals recently. This order, however, has seen a serious rebuff from the protesting doctors.
That apart, deliberations have gone deep into minute details of the investigation, such as why the mandatory “challan” did not accompany the dead body of Abhaya to the post mortem doctor.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who recently unveiled and passed in the state assembly an “anti-rape” bill called Aparajita, has said that she was willing to speak to a delegation of doctors on the issue and settle matters quickly. This move may have been prompted by the resignation as Rajya Sabha MP of Jawhar Sircar, a former bureaucrat, who has hit out against the state’s response to the crime and said that he was expecting a response from the chief minister in “the old Mamata style”. Mamata has had a telephonic conversation with Sircar and has asked him to reconsider his resignation.
At the same time, Mamata has earned public scorn when she commented that it was time to “return to utsav (celebrations)”, citing the Durga Puja around the corner. While she may have been talking about the many small traders in distress—for most of them, Durga Puja is the only time to earn, the rest of the months being virtually dry—the language she used has not helped. Puja sales have been dismal due to constant protests and processions, and in a low productivity state, this is a dangerous state of affairs.
Base Instincts
If one stands back a bit and sees the entire canvas, one clear direction is visible, probably because of the ruthless hijack of the issue by political parties: The demand for the resignation of Mamata Banerjee and the demand for the resignation of Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal. This particular cry seems to be slowly, but surely gaining more popularity than the basic demand for justice for the hapless Abhaya and for the security of doctors in government hospitals in the state. Such are the base instincts of politics.
This feeling gained substance when the state’s governor, CV Ananda Bose, also directed Mamata to hold an immediate emergency cabinet meeting to discuss people’s demand to replace Goyal.
Top Court’s Directives
As for the recent top court hearing by the bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, the following main points were discussed and some directives issued:
- Junior doctors must return to work by Tuesday (September 10) 5pm. If this happens, the state government cannot take any manner of disciplinary action against them, including transfers. “But if they do not resume work as doctors then we cannot restrain state govt from taking actions,” the Court observed.
- On the autopsy issue, the CJI asked: “Where is the challan of the body when it’s handed over for post-mortem?” Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta had informed that the challan was not part of their record. Mehta pointed out that “…this column contains what other material was sent along with the body.” He added that the CBI too did not have the challan. The SG reminded the Court that in the case of rape and murder, the first five hours are crucial and CBI has its challenges when they come to probing after five days of the incident.
- There was also talk about lack of procedure, such as the vaginal swab which should have been taken at 4 degrees Celsius.
- The CJI again observed the delay of over 14 hours in the filing of the FIR and said that this was surprising.
- The bench was informed that the CISF personnel deployed at the hospital (especially women personnel) had no place to stay or toilets to use. The Court ordered this to be made available within 24 hours.
- With pictures of Abhaya still doing the rounds on social media (this has been banned by an early Supreme Court order), the top court directed the authorities to remove all photos of the victim from social media immediately. “Damage has been done by circulation of these photographs. All photographs of the dead body are to be removed forthwith,” said the Court.
- Another status report: The CBI has been asked by the Court to present a fresh status report by next week with additional inputs. “We will take the case on Tuesday (September 17), let’s see what happens now…CBI is doing it, we don’t want to guide CBI on its investigation,” the CJI remarked.
Totally Disheartened
It was clear, though, that the issue will not die quickly. The Supreme Court’s directive to junior doctors to return to work by 5 pm on Tuesday seems to have broken the hearts of protesting doctors, and later on Monday they said that they will continue their ceasework and not return to duty in their demand for justice.
Later that day the Indian Medical Association (IMA)’s Bengal branch also said it was “totally disheartened” with the Court’s directive. As of writing this, the situation has not been resolved at any level.
The doctors, finally, did not join work as per the top court’s instructions, and as of writing this, they have failed to have a proper discussion with the state government either.
According to media reports, junior doctors interviewed after the Supreme Court directives said: “After the rape-murder incident, a sense of fear haunts us. Many culprits are still roaming free and still traumatise us. We fear that they might attack us any time,” one doctor was quoted as saying.
Another doctor said: “We are not secure. Unless we get our security, we cannot join work. Our protest for justice for the RG Kar victim will continue.”
That is a key factor that the top court did try to consider, saying that junior doctors are to be provided enough protection and that there should be ID cards checked at every gate to the emergency section, as well as in other areas. During the hearing, it was pointed out that even now, several people who are not authorised to enter the hospital premises, especially those notorious “civic volunteers”—the arrested suspect Sanjay Roy was one of them—were roaming free within the hospital premises.
The “threat culture” inside hospitals of West Bengal is an issue that the junior doctors are also protesting, and this is a serious matter to be considered to allow the doctors, especially the lady doctors, to function safely. Mamata Banerjee at her press conference did request the doctors to rejoin work, but that has not cut any ice so far.
West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant has announced: “We are committed to providing security cover to meet the students’ demands. Already Rs 100 crore has been allocated to various state-run medical colleges to upgrade security infrastructure, including resting rooms and renovation of toilets. We urge junior students to join duty.”
As of now, the doctors and even the public have lost complete faith in the state administration and the chief secretary’s claim seems as worthless as the paper it has been printed on.
The doctors are firm on their demand and have said: “Unless we see major changes, we will continue our protest.” What these major changes could be has not been defined.
Finally, The Arrests
Meanwhile, a couple of much-awaited arrests have been made by the CBI, including of the former principal of the hospital, Dr Sandip Ghosh. After nearly a hundred hours of interrogation, the CBI found financial irregularities and arrested Ghosh, who has since been suspended by the state authorities. Also arrested have been two of his henchmen.
Also on the arrest radar are three junior doctors who have been close to Ghosh: Birupaksha Biswas, Aveek De and Ranjit Saha. The state police have filed FIRs against all three.
Two of them were seen at the crime site immediately after the incident and now it has been found that they were part of a much larger racket that the state health department has been suffocating under.
The racket not only includes sale of medicines, but also, disgustingly enough, of used surgical equipment, including syringes and even bio-medical waste.
The public and media outcry has been slowly bringing many other shadowy operators out in the open, but the overall feeling is that while many political parties are making hay, the process of “justice” itself might slowly be receding to the background.